China grids to connect 90 GW of wind power by 2015

State Grid Corporation of China’s white paper details Chinese expansion of wind power to 90 GW capacity by 2015, 150 GW by 2020.

China's electrical grids will connect 90 GW of wind power capacity by 2015, said China's largest power grid company on Friday. The figure will rise to 150 GW by 2020, said the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) in a white paper on wind power development. This is the first white paper issued by a company on wind power development in China.

The market for wind power consumption is found primarily in northern China, eastern China and central China, while wind power farm projects are largely located in northern China, northeastern China and northwestern China, making it necessary to boost grid infrastructure construction, according to the white paper.

The SGCC vowed in the white paper to increase wind power transmission grids in the next five years. China's wind power installation has doubled every year for the past five years. It totaled approximately 40 GW in 2010, ranking first in the world. Currently, China's installed wind power capacity connected to national grids is above 30 GW, according to the white paper.

Shu Yinbiao, deputy general manager of SGCC, said publishing the white paper is a move by SGCC to actively fulfill its public responsibility and promote sound development of wind power in China.

Shu said that by the end of 2010, China had 29.56 GW wind turbines integrated to the grid. The annual growth of wind power grid admission was nearly 100 percent in the country over the past five years.

China Wind Energy Association (CWEA) said China had 44.7 GW wind turbines installed by the end of 2010. It means nearly 34 percent wind turbines were not joined to the grid.

Shu said that in 2010, China’s wind turbines operated for 2,097 hours on average. Wind power was widely applied in many regions. It constituted 21.1 percent of local power consumption in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia, 8.7 percent in the western part of Inner Mongolia, 5.6 percent in Jilin Province, and 4.6 percent in Heilongjiang Province.

Shu said that since wind farms are largely based in northern China and electric power users are mainly found in central and eastern regions, China has to transmit construct large wind power bases in the north and send wind power over long distances to the central and east. Ultra-high-voltage power transmission lines are good options, which are expected to eventually double China's wind power consumption capacity. State Grid complains that uncontrolled wind farm construction has outpaced the national plan for grid construction, which makes grid access a bottleneck of China’s wind power development.